Gazmo

We need a bunch of new airplanes, but won't have anyone to fly or maintain them. Makes sense to me. What a funny past 15 years this has been. It's amazing how something so good has turned into something this bad. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

More with less. We had to pay for the F-22 and F-35 somehow. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

For all the dudes who are thinking about joining the guard or reserves and juggle that with an airline job, just realized that a lot of the guard and Reserve units are busy. It may not be busy compared to an active-duty lifestyle by itself but when you combine that with family and an airline gig things get pretty busy. If you have a spouse with a good job and you can mail drop a lot of trips to manage your schedule that's great but if you're the breadwinner and you're trying to hold down two jobs you're still going to be away from home and you're still going to be busy. There are still going to be deployment requirements and although you won't be deployed as much your deployments in the guard or reserves combined with your days away from home with the airlines do add up. We've picked up a lot of active duty guys and gals over the past couple years and some of them are considering just separating totally and not going to 20 years because they underestimated just how busy they would be and how challenging it is to juggle both especially if you're far away from either one of your jobs. So my suggestion is 2 pick a guard unit near where you're going to be faced with the airlines or pick an airline where you can be base near your guard unit. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

Yeah well doing business without a budget has been a way of life for us now. It's almost become a norm. I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I had a budget to work with for more then 3 months at a time. We lost a drill weekend last Dec because of the CR. Congress has proven they don't give a shit about running a military nevermind retaining pilots. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

Trucker school. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

The tanker world is bleeding full-timers like there's no tomorrow. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

There is a reason why units can't fill AGR positions anymore. This is a good time to be a technician if there is such a thing. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

There is the $25k deal and $15k deal. If you only fullfill the obligation for the $15k deal, but you signed for the $25k deal you must pay back the cummulative difference between the $25k deal and the $15k deal. Could end up being $20,000 and you have to pay that back pre-tax (and file corrected w2's). Royal PITA, but hey... if you want out, you do what you have to do. At the end of the day when you have the potential to make $300+ per hour in the last 5 years of your airline career working 10 days per month, $20k now is chump change. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

If you are an AGR and are collecting a pilot bonus in the Guard or Reserves you can be subject to repayment if you don't fullfill your obligation. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

Wing Staff = you didn't miss much. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

Yep. Because the airlines are smart enough to know stop-loss is a viable option and they're going to hire all the military they can get while they're available. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

MAF is "extremely healthy"? Are you living under a rock? I spoke to a major at a tanker unit a few weeks back who said he was the only major that he knows of in the past year PCS'ing to a follow on assignment. Everyone else at his base is getting out. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

This sounds like the old GI Bill. It's still a good deal regardless. $2,400 for 36 months of benefits? Some of us have gotten real used to post 9/11 type benefits and they've become an entitlement, but we all should have known this type of treatment wouldn't last forever. They've gotta rob Peter to pay Paul. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

If the Air Force could somehow convince the airlines to rewrite the book and do away with a seniority based promotion system alla Emirates. Then people wouldn't be so spring loaded to jump ship for a line number in hopes for accelerated seniority. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

If I were an airline guy, I wouldn't take an AGR tour unless I was *maybe* within 2-3 years of an AD retirement. I couldn't stomach the full-time thing much longer than that know I could be working a lot less while making more $. The AD retirement isn't that glamorous to sacrifice QOL. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

These people need to be rushing ARC units. I'd be willing to bet there are some units desperate enough to take a Lt Col at 18 years. It'd take that Lt Col 5-6 more years in the ANG or Reserves to get an AD retirement. Win-win for everyone. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

True. Which is why lots of technicians are turning down AGR jobs because they don't want to be stuck and not be able to get out of their orders when the company calls. AGR jobs used to be the carrot on the string for a long time and now that carrot has shriveled up and rotted away. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

Traditional deployments for ARC used to come in AEF cycles and were mostly filled on a volunteer basis. As we know, the AEF concept went down the shitter over a decade ago so now most of us "rainbow" for continuous ops. Most of us have a crew or two in CENTCOM on a continuous basis. Fighter units are more AEF centric, but the tanker world right now fills a rainbow. After 9/11 many tanker units were activated and sent to CENTCOM for OEF. These days, individual wings are given mobilization authority at the WG/CC level so if the whole unit says, "Screw you! We're not going!", the Wing King has authority to mobilize crews to fill the tasking. Most of us still volunteer as it means doing a 30 day rotation vs. a 60 day one. Some people like getting mobilized because of USERRA and the associated protection they receive with mob orders. Not so shockingly enough, there are some employers out there giving reservists/guardsmen shit for volunteering. It does the ARC no good volunteering, but we're damned if we do and damned if we don't. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

ARC cannot backfill AD any more than we do now without REAL mobilization. They've given us mobilization authority at the unit level to make unit-level leadership the bad guys without having to publically advertize that our national interests are so great that we are relying heavily on the ARC to fight our wars... eerrr.. peace-keeping missions... eerrr.. whatever you want to call what we are doing right now. Jesus H Christ, Al Udeid has got to be 75% ARC right now on the tanker side. 12 years ago we (when I was on AD) were manning the Deid, Manas and Al Dhafra at the same time, but AD decided to get rid of a super-tanker wing (Grand Forks) and Robins. Most of those jets went to the ARC. Guess who's back filling the tanker mission now. The ARC. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

This is where I sit back, munch on some popcorn and pat myself on the back for Palace Chasing almost 11 some odd years ago to the ANG after brief, but thorough enough tour of AD. I was a pretty quick learner as a 1Lt. There were tons of us who got out in that first round of Force Shaping in the '05-06 timeframe. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

They should worry about saving their bonus money and hiring more support troops. FM, FSS, admins, bring the orderly rooms back, etc... let the pilots do their primary jobs. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk They'll never get it.

They've already made the ARC like AD over the past 15 years. It's too late. You can blame your ARC leadership for that. Oh how the apples don't fall far from the trees. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

Not sure when all of the brain surgeons in charge of this train wreck will realize the ARC is the place to throw their money into right now. It's their saving grace. Give us more airplanes, allow us to hire more people, make all of the full-time positions AGR's with AD-like service commitments and big bonus, and give DSG's bonuses also. Let's face it; we're wasting money paying active duty officers to plan Christmas parties and random other events to climb the corporate ladder and stop flying by the time they pin on Lt Col. We need line pilots to do the mission. In the ARC, you essentially have a line pilot for at least 20 years and you don't have to pay him full-time. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

You can't put a price tag on a better QOL and a chance to move on and do something different. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk